Hey, superstar! Ando here at quarantine headquarters for Happy Life Martial Arts.
Injuries-- we all get them, but do they stop you from training? Sadly, I get
emails all the time from students who maybe strain their back so they stop
training or they tweak their knee and they stop training. As fate would have it
I have both strained my back and tweaked my knee, but I'm not gonna stop. Today I'd
like to share an unusual exercise that I fall back on when I'm a little jacked up
but still want to sharpen up my kicking skills. And whether you're injured or not
I think you might get some value out of it too, so come on-- let's work out
together.
okay first things first safety look I don't know what condition
you're in or what injuries you might be dealing with so if anything causes you
pain just stop even better if you're not sure why not go to your doctor's sit
down and watch this video together and see if he or she thinks this is a good
idea bottom line please take care of yourself alright so I'm on the ground
why because lying on the ground will take the weight off of my back and my
knees now here's the trick when we lie down today I'm not thinking about
self-defense from the ground and I'm kicking away attackers the real trick to
this exercise for me is I'm gonna pretend that I'm standing up so take
your fighting stance that you would normally have standing up and just bring
it down so that means you can relax your shoulders and keep your neck straight or
even put it on the ground if you want to but just imagine you're actually
standing up so that we can continue to enhance that mind-body connection
to our stand up kicking techniques does that make sense
let's start down at the bottom first level just lie down alright that part's
pretty easy you can't do this stop the tape alright from here just see if you
can get your knees up this farm if you can do that great if you can give
yourself a little pull just to start stretching out your lower back wonderful
if this is all you can do today that's okay
please remember doing something is always better than doing nothing so even
if this is all you do and you walk away hey celebrate you did something now if
you can do a little more than this you can start bringing those knees up a
little higher and start a back roll I presume you're on a mat or on a carpet
if not please go find one soften the roll and just thinking about
your lower back just relax let those muscles melt and again if
you're dealing with an injury you start to feel some kind of discomfort
slow down come back to something a little
blur and just stay there it's okay this is not a competition all right but
presuming you can get this much going let gravity help you out you lacks
excellent now let's turn this into a side rule so instead of just going back
let's just start tipping side-to-side all right no big deal I have to go fast
here's the trick though I want you to let your top leg fall so you roll and
then let it drop roll then relax your top leg and let it close so over and
closed over and close now if you can do that let's kick it up a notch I'm just
rolling from side to side but why don't we try to lift our butt and then fall so
lift your butt and then fall so up and to the side up and to the side so this
is keep going this is taking the back roll where we can get our butt up off
the floor and then combining it with the side wall so up and to the side up to
the side one more up to the side and let that close I should have told you I'm
not really big on counting I'm not going to say ten on this side ten on that side
this is your time if you can only go slowly and do one or two of something
that's fine if you're a hotshot you want to pump out ten or twenty that's on you
okay now one more notch up if you can do the up and to the side now I'd like to
keep that going in my legs and my hips but now let's bring up our hands and
keep our heads straight okay we're starting to form that fighting stance or
sparring stance now as I'm going side to side this should start to feel like
you're chambering a round kick or a side kick does that make sense so here I am
sparring and I want to throw a side kick as I bring up my knee and I pivot I want
to start getting this gentle twist get them on the ground so hopefully
hopefully that feels gentle let that leg come around as if you're about to
chamber a sidekick or you were doing a round kick but I'm still focusing on my
partner okay so keep that going hands up so up to the side up to the side but I'm
looking straight keep your head straight okay and couple more just relax
nice and easy at your pace it's okay good job last one okay good so so far so
good that's a nice little warm-up hopefully your knees feel fine hopefully
you've found out how much flexibility you still have your lower back now we
can start turning this into some kicking I'd like to go over a front kick a round
kick and a side kick all based on the rolling that we've been doing so far
let's start with the front kick now simplest level just lie down again okay
just lie down and from here let's pick one leg all I want you to do is see how
high you can get that foot and let's just focus on the knee maybe you're
rehabbing this knee maybe you tweaked it like I did and I just want to build some
confidence again in it so I'm just exploring I'm spending a little time
with this joint now I don't have to kick high right now pretend if I was standing
up I've just be kicking someone in the meat this is low but if you can bring up
your foot a little higher as if you're kicking someone in the stomach great do
that you can get your leg up even higher as if you're kicking someone in the face
you get your butt up off the ground Wow are you even injured good for you
alright try your other leg so just kick love if you like no big deal just again
you can even close your eyes sometimes just to really feel your muscles and
your bones get to know your leg a little better and if it's hurting see if you
can heal that you kick a little higher a little higher
terrific not so bad now okay switching back to the other leg in fact let's
alternate if you can move your knee and that's comfortable now pretend like
you're standing and you're going to bring up your knee like you're
chambering kick and then put your leg down bring up your leg kick
and bring it down no hurry again just focus on your breathing and
what that feels like to throw a kick back in the days when you could stand up
still pretend you're standing keep your hands up good have it keep your neck
relaxed right now if you want you just practice this chamber and this kick good
old front kick just a couple more you get the idea let's kick this up another
level now I'd like you to turn bladed into your normal fighting stance feel or
however you spar so now instead of being flat I presume you don't practice
yourself defense like a snowman and just face people so turn your body so now
you're more hip then on your back okay and I'm gonna bend my knees so it feels
very much like I'm standing upright now shuffling around now let's practice the
front kick from here he ends up looking at your imaginary partner so bringing up
that foot and kicking and again if today your back hurts so bad you just want to
bring up your foot and just do little kicks from here that's fine just focus
on the knee today but if you can bring this up and kick and put it down maybe
you're not injured at all you're just trying to explore live okay
and keep bringing up this foot excellent a couple more okay and we're gonna
switch to the other leg so switch to the other side spare you a strange view
there so hands up right and just kick down kick and down and again
the closer you can make this feel to your actual stand up front kick the
better so if there's little stylistic quirks that you like to add in here how
much you pop your hip or if you rotate a little bit or where you put your hands
that's up to you just feel it out a little bit you get this idea so we will
move on a couple more here finish that up nicely and last one for everyone good
okay so far so good right we've warmed up our joints I hope you're not feeling
any pressure or pain if you are stop we just did the front kick now it's gonna
get a little trickier let's move into the round kick now here's the dealio
remember that roll we were doing from side to side and I said this should
start to feel like a pivot well that's the idea here
so watch this carefully I don't want to just roll to the side and then stick out
my foot like a round kick no matter how hard I try to make this one look like a
round kick you'll notice that I haven't really pivoted my body this would not be
a very effective round kick this is probably how you might have jacked up
your knee in the first place because you didn't pivot your lower body you're
trying to stick out that rounded foot so take advantage of this momentum as you
come over and you let that knee drop come all the way over
take a look I'm gonna use my arm like a pillow down here and I'm gonna roll up
so that I'm on my knee and on the ball of my foot my hips not even on the
ground so I'm just gonna use this momentum just gently just to come over
now I have pivoted now the trick will be just for your timing as you come over
I'm going to lead with my knee for this round kick and stick out my foot now
there are many different ways to throw the round kick I am choosing right now
to lead with my knee as I come over and then stick out my foot if you would
prefer to let your leg lag behind and kind of swing it around more like a
wheel kick that's up to you but just find this place where you feel
comfortable turning and throwing whatever round kick you enjoy now if you
need to put your other hand on the ground let me well if you need to come
over and form a more of a base here as you're looking at your foot that's okay
do that if you wanna try to balance that's a little trickier let's stay on
one foot for the moment let's do this together the same way we did this with
the front kick let's just get to this nice position and just stick out your
foot there like you're throwing round kicks to do we've done a lot on this
side already so let's switch that around turn around this way and again this gets
a little confusing just come back to the role you lift up and over okay now get
the kick this time as I come over I feel that momentum and then there's my kick
right there so I stick out your foot and just pretend to get in with you're
standing up and I'm just extending that leg out there for my round kick always
looking at my foot I don't know about you I like to see what I'm hitting I
want them to see me so there's that okay now if you have that now let's alternate
okay we'll go back and forth this is a little trick here because you're gonna
keep shifting your balance that's cool so give it a shot always come back to
your roll roll and relax my hands up roll and kick roll and kick
roll and kick roll roll and kick oh my gosh I might be making up a song right
now a couple more I'll spare you the singing
that's too cruel but do you feel how you can use gravity here to relax your
muscles instead of adding tension if you were standing up right now it'd be
really hard to be bouncing trying to pull up from gravity fight gravity to
get that leg around but it's okay you still use the same nerve pathways down
here we're just not flexing and tensing to just feel what it's like to turn and
extend and come back good take a breath for a moment if that makes sense then we
have one more let's practice a side kick or a back kick whatever you'd like to
call it the kind where you turn and then stick out your foot to knock somebody
away this time it's almost the same thing it's just a slight timing
difference this time from the side roll up and down up and down I don't want to
stick out my foot until I hit the ground so I'm going to come
/ I get up now I stick out the foot so that's the difference for me between the
round kick and the side kick I'm the round kick I'm going to use this
movement to stick out the foot so we end at the same time for the side kick I'm
gonna let this become the pivot first the chamber and then stick out the side
kick alright so let's try one leg first pick a leg come over get your platform
your base I'm looking where I'm going I just stick out my heel or blade for you
if you like and just stick out that side kick and look at the chamber coming in
this is where you can relax that hip and relax your back feel that nice chamber
position tucked in and then just extend it out whatever makes sense to you okay
feel your body here see if that works just a few you could use many of these
you want on your own time but I got to get out of here
here we go good try your other leg got a bunch of pie sitting at home I gotta get
out of here so from the roll this is your base feeling then keep your head
straight as your legs swing then let it fall and relax all the way over into a
chamber and stick out the side kick bring it in and stick out that side kick
I like to keep looking at what I'm doing so now you might be thinking hey isn't
that just a mule kick yeah you're right no this is very much it looks like a
mule kick you're on all fours and we were just kicking this up yeah pretty
much you can add that into your workout if you wish that's yours I'm just trying
to relax this back and feel how gravity can help me out here and coordinate okay
let's wrap this up with alternating side kicks you ready here we go so from the
stop we start with the regular side roll with my head moving and then I'm gonna
keep my head straight and let my leg relax now I'm gonna roll over and kick
roll over and kick
roll over okay roll over and kick you got this
good well over a kick roll over okay roll over and kick how about that that
makes sense do you feel the same muscles really that
you use standing up hopefully you don't feel any of the pain from a back injury
or a knee injury or an ankle injury but you still feel that good strong
connections through your spine through your hip through your leg into your foot
for a good kick now we can talk about ground kicking for self-defense another
time but for right now I just want you to find a way to keep training if you
can don't let injuries stop you it's hard
enough to build momentum when you're healthy if you let an injury knock you
out then oh it's really hard to get back and catch up you'll never get that time
back so even if it starts with just reading a
book that inspires you and watching a video that gives you some ideas for
later but hopefully there is always a way even if you have to crawl on the
ground like today to move your muscles a little bit and remind your muscles what
they should be doing what they should feel I promise you can still build good
habits even in weird ways so give yourself that opportunity don't give up
all right until I see you again I hope you got something out of that. Let your
smile be your shield and your sword. Keep fighting for a happy life.